


Revelations

by rickandmortygetschwifty



Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, Scene Rewrite, Super sappiness ahead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 13:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11829993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rickandmortygetschwifty/pseuds/rickandmortygetschwifty
Summary: A Rickmorty fix-it fic for the scene with Morty and the rocket ship in 3x04





	Revelations

“—that thing is the only part of the Vindicators that has any value to me. If you know what it is, place it on the platform. Guess wrong and you’ll die.”

The drunk Rick on the screen continued his senseless tirade, threatening the surviving Vindicators with another poorly-made neutrino bomb. If Morty wasn’t still shaken from the trauma of seeing four people get gruesomely killed, he’d definitely be laughing at Rick.

He isn’t laughing now.

_Smartest man in the world, my ass. Can’t even be counted on to make a decent bastardization of Saw_. 

Supernova’s lip curled as drunk Rick’s screen shut off. “So what’s the trick? Morty, you’re the drunk Rick expert. What does he value?”

_Something Rick values? Oh no._

What’s valuable to a person like Rick? There wasn’t anything except sex, drugs or booze that would get Rick to stop being a grade-A asshole. He was the type of person who’d portal away to another galaxy just to avoid a minor inconvenience. Hell, he’s a guy who’d leave his own granddaughter behind in an apocalyptic wasteland, replace his family after Cronenberging his dimension, and fuck up the lives of millions of people on a weekly basis.

Nothing mattered to Rick. Not his family, not his friends, not even himself, if his crippling alcoholism and constant partying that led them to this exact situation was any indicator.

_It was nice meeting you guys, let’s take a picture before our bodies get vaporized on a subatomic level. Oh, by the way, the Vindicators are dicks. Every single one of you._

Million Ants and Supernova were still waiting for an answer. “I-I think no matter what we put up there… we die. He said it’s the part of the Vindicators he values. It’s nothing,” Morty replied dejectedly, unable to look at them in the eyes as he delivered the news. “He wants our last moments alive knowing how few fucks he gave.”

Supernova looked like she was going to burst a vein. “Jesus. Okay, open to second opinions here.”

Rick hesitated. “W-well, it could be Morty.”

“Rick, we don’t have time for jokes,” Morty snorted.

“I-I’m being serious here, Morty.”

“What?” Morty asked disbelievingly.  _You care about me? You’re kidding me, right?  I smell bullshit, and it ain’t the diarrhea you slept in yesterday._

“Just throwing it out there.” Rick shrugged, clearly uncomfortable. “I-I-I get stupid and emotional when I’m drunk. Maybe drunk me thought he was losing Morty to the Vindicators?”

“Y-y-you… think that drunk Rick might be talking about me?”

Rick gave him a withering stare. “D-don’t get me wrong, I-I-I’m not being coy about some hidden love for you. I-it’s an honest hypothesis drawn from all the given data. Y-y-you might be our only chance.”

The way Rick talked set off alarm bells in Morty’s head. Rick was trying to play off his suggestion as nonchalantly as possible, but Morty knew how to read his grandpa too well to miss the millisecond-long flash of fear that darted past Rick’s face.

Million Ants crossed his arms. “Are you willing to bet on the boy in exchange for our lives? How sure are you that it would not trigger the bomb?”

“O-okay, look. It was just a guess. Morty’s the only one out of all of you that I-I can stand to look at.” Rick fidgeted, glancing at his grandson. “I-i-it could still be what Morty said. W-we could still die from a horrible death.”

Seeing the panic reflected in Rick’s eyes gave Morty pause. Rick never panicked. Even when he gets cornered.  _Especially_ when he gets cornered. He lied like a charlatan and knew how to bullshit his way out of getting arrested in fifty different dimensions. What’s so terrifying about admitting that maybe, just maybe, he had a tiny shred of compassion for his grandson?

Unless Rick had something to hide.

“Alright, I-I’m doing it,” Morty announced, finally arriving at a decision. “We either do nothing and die, o-or we can try and also die. I-I-I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna get on that platform.”

“Morty, i-i-it could still be something else, d-doOOUGHn’t do it! Y-y-you’re going to kill us!”

“Y-you’ve got any better ideas, Rick?” Morty hopped on the platform, ignoring his grandfather’s pleas. The room held its breath as it waited for something to happen.

The platform pinged.

Rick sighed in relief. “O-okay, Morty, you can get off the platform, you’ve proven your point. Y-y-you can be smug about it la—”

A hatch in the platform opened, forcing Morty into a chair.

_Whoops._

 Rick and the Vindicators watched helplessly as the boy was plunged into a pitch-black pit.

“MORTY!” someone yelled as he disappeared.

_Oh, geez, I fucked up._ Morty gripped the edges of the chair for dear life as it descended. 

 It was deathly quiet and dark in the pit until the distant  _click-clack_ of gears and metal pierced the silence. Harsh white light flooded the room in an instant, causing the boy to shield his abused eyes.

When his vision cleared, he got his first look at whatever death trap Rick had in store for him. The chair had deposited him in a crudely made ride resembling a rocket ship latched onto a narrow track that led into a darkened hallway. Morty barely had any time to inspect the contraption before the ride shuddered to a start, rolling forward on rusted wheels. A screen overhead flickered to life, showing the face of drunk Rick again.

“I-I-I’m sorry, I’m not that good at goodbyes,” drunk Rick said, appearing more exhausted and miserable than Morty’s ever seen. “I-I-I know those hero types— I don’t trust ‘em, a-a-and I know they don’t want me around. This might be the last time I see you, a-and I don’t want to leave w-w-without saying what I want you to hear. So here it fucking goes.

“I-I want you to know that even if I don’t show it, y-y-you mean a whole damn lot to me. I-I’ve been alive for a long time, a-a-and for years I’ve been telling myself that I didn’t need to care about anyone. O-o-or anything. Boy, I was wrong.”  

Morty’s rocket ship reached the end of the hallway. The ride crept forward into a series of rooms, splashes of color and dioramas decorating every wall. The boy recognized every single detail placed lovingly in each of Rick’s creation.

A small stone castle filled with statues of knights and dragons, representing Morty’s love of fantasy novels. A wall decorated with familiar scenery from planets they visited. A ceiling with blue glow-in-the-dark stars, constellations painstakingly arranged to mimic the night sky view from their backyard. A miniature replica of Rick’s spaceship that hung above a cardboard cutout of the Earth. Every single thing reminded Morty of himself.

The boy couldn’t help but smile at a prominently displayed painting of two figures that resembled a certain scientist and his grandson.

“I need you, a-and not just because of that bullshit reason about needing your brainwaves,” Rick continued, his voice floating through hidden speakers. “Y-you’re irreplaceable because of so much more than that. I just want to make it clear to you that I-I-I would never, ever replace you. N-not even for the exact same person from another dimension. Not even if my life depended on it.”

The ride stopped at a plain room, its only occupant a screen displaying Rick’s face.

“G-goddamnit, why am I crying? It makes no sense.”  Rick turned away from the screen to wipe his eyes.

_It’s called having feelings, you idiot,_ Morty thought, his heart filling with fondness for his grandfather.

“Fuck it. Fuck everything. I-I’m just going to say it,” Rick said determinedly. “I love you.”

_I love you too, you ass. Even if it took getting shitfaced for you to say it._

Rick wasn’t done. “I love you, moOURPre than you might think. M-more than I should. Y-you don’t know how many times I-I had to stop myself from ruining what we have. I was so scared y-you would find out how I felt. I have nightmares about you dying because of me. B-but even worse for me i-is the thought of impulsively kissing you, a-a-and making you hate me because I-I’m a sick fuck.“

_What?_

“W-when I saw you choose the Vindicators o-over me, I was absolutely livid. What did these bastards have th-that I didn’t have? I-I just didn’t say it because I didn’t want it to get to your head. I practically drank u-until I stop getting the urge to straight-up kill every last one of them. Seeing you idolize those morons… I was fine with that. Mostly. But when y-y-you told me they were your heroes, you ripped my fucking heart in half.” Rick bit his lip in an obvious attempt to stop himself from crying.

_No._

“I-I knew I’d never be the hero y-you want. I-I’d never be the person you want me to be, because I’m—I’m callous, I’m a terrible influence, and I’ve done too many horrible things to desreve someone like you,” Rick confessed. “Y-you’re amazing, you know. Y-y-you understand people. L-l-like you could see through all the shit they’ve done a-and still forgive them in a heartbeat. I-it’s just who you are.”

_No. It can’t be. This ride can’t be for me,_ Morty thought, shaking his head. _It has to be for someone else. He made a mistake. Rick doesn’t love me like that. He can’t._

“I-if I got what I wanted… i-if there ever was a god who could make it happen… I-I’d wrap y-you up in my arms a-and never let you go. I’d protect y-you from all the assholes who’d dare to hurt y-you, and I-I’d do worse than annihilate them with a neutrino bomb, I-I’d cut them up with my own two hands. I’d show you the multiverse a-a-and we’d run away and be happy together like all the dumb fucks in those sappy chick flicks Jerry likes so much.”

_He can’t feel the same way I do._

Morty struggled to quash the tiny spark of hope in his chest.

“M-Morty, I-I’ve wanted you for a long time,” drunk Rick spoke clearly, shattering any denial that the boy still had. “I-I’ve wanted to kiss you—wanted to do things worse than that for a long time. A-and it’s killing me on the inside knowing that some lucky a-hole’ll get to do that stuff with you.”

_He doesn’t love me back._

“Why me?” Rick suddenly laughed, interrupting his own confession. “What’s wrong with me? I-I’m sick in the head— I-I feel so dirty for even feeling this way. Funny, right? Y-y-you’d think that someone who’d slept with aliens w-would have no problems with incest. Why not just get it over and done with? It’s just—I can’t— I-I can’t do this to you. I’m not good for you Morty, a-and the thought of shitting all over your innocence and optimism is downright repulsive to me. I-I want someone better than me for you, even if it’s the equivalent of putting my heart in a blender.“

His drunk grandfather shook his head, sobering up quickly. “W-what the fuck am I saying? Th-this is a horrible idea. I-i-if anyone’s watching this, I didn’t mean anything I said. I-I’m not hiding any inappropriate feelings for my grandson. I was—I’m— this entire video was about Noob Noob. Y-yeah, that’s right. I’m hard for a guy who looks like a deformed potato. What are you going to do about it? Show’s over. Get the fuck out of here.”

The lights switch off, blanketing Morty in darkness and leaving him to stew in his own thoughts.

_Rick loves me._

 The ride whirs and clanks noisily as it ejected him out of the chair, sending him straight into the room with Rick and the remaining Vindicators. Morty got to his feet slowly, still unnerved.

Rick reached him first. “Congratulations on not killing us all, Morty. W-what the hell happened in there? Did drunk me bullshit you? Whatever he said, i-it’s not worth losing sleep over.”

“He didn’t.”

"W-what are you talking about?”

“I-it means that I know what y-you really feel about me.”

Rick’s unibrow shot up to his hairline when he heard Morty’s answer. The pair shared an electrifying gaze, Rick’s careful façade crumbling under Morty’s scrutiny and his many emotions bubbling to the surface.

Fear, curiosity, apprehension, and a tiny smidge of guilt. Rick’s eyes betrayed one simple fact about the rocket ship ride Morty went on.

_It was all true._

Morty froze as he absorbed this new revelation. Without skipping a beat, the boy threw his arms around the taller man’s neck and brought him down to eye level. Rick flinched from the abrupt physical contact, his mouth open in shock. The boy regarded Rick’s surprise with mild amusement before sealing their mouths together in one bruising kiss.

Rick’s body was rigid at first, but it slowly grew more pliant as Morty’s enthusiasm infected him. The scientist enveloped his grandson in his arms and tilted the boy’s body back, turning the kiss filthy as he teased a tongue into the other’s mouth. The boy reciprocated eagerly, tasting every inch of Rick. Morty’s flesh prickled from the heat of the kiss, his hands yanking Rick’s lab coat as he attempted to burrow deeper into his grandfather.

Rick tasted like bile and the kiss was sloppy but Morty could hardly give two shits about it when he was finally getting what he had wanted for so long. He had dreamed of getting this close to Rick for years, but he had been resigned to the fact that he would never be able to have his grandfather the way he wanted to. He needed to forget. He wanted to forget. But how could he go back to loving the familiar soft curves and kindness of Jessica, after having had a glimpse of the hard edges and irresistible allure that made up much of Rick’s personality?

Then drunk Rick spilled his secret, and now nothing would ever be the same.

The two broke apart too soon, a string of saliva connecting the their mouths. For a moment, no one spoke, the pair resting their foreheads against the other as they savored the glow of their kiss. Rick tenderly wiped the corner of Morty’s mouth with such a blatant look of affection on his face that the boy couldn’t help but stare at him.

_I want to see him make that face again. I want to kiss him a thousand more times._

“H-how much do you remember?” Morty whispered to Rick, ignoring the Vindicators’ disgusted expressions as they watched him cling to his grandfather.

“What?”

“Y-y-you heard me.”

“Enough to know I made an ass of myself.” Rick looked away. “Morty, I-I still don’t know if this”–Rick gestured between them—“is a good idea. I remember saying that being around me i-is going to get you hurt. I still think it’s true.“

Morty said nothing in reply, instead opting to rest his hand over Rick’s. His grandfather raised an eyebrow.

_I want this. Do you?_

Rick curled his hand around Morty’s, intertwining their fingers and answering his grandson’s unspoken question.

It wasn’t quite an acceptance, it wasn’t a rejection, but something much more.

A beginning.


End file.
